Tuesday marks 43 years since an infamous shooting that left the Saxonburg area in shock.
It was a sunny Sunday afternoon in the heart of Saxonburg, when police chief Greg Adams spotted a vehicle running a stop sign on Water Street. After blocking the vehicle near the Agway Feed Store, the suspect who was later identified as Donald Eugene Webb handed Adams a fake ID.
Webb then jumped out of the car and proceeded to shoot Adams twice in the chest. The two proceeded to fight, before Webb then took off with Adams’ gun and stole the keys to his patrol car.
Adams was taken to the hospital where he would die two days later from his injuries. Following the shooting, police identified Webb as the primary suspect.
However, the FBI could not locate Webb in the years after the shooting. It wasn’t until 2017 when Webb’s wife finally confessed to the FBI that she hid her husband in her home until his death in 1999.
Adams’ life is memorialized in Downtown Saxonburg and a street was renamed in his honor in 2018.
